I'm just getting home from teaching a pastel class at Lux Center for the Arts in Lincoln, Ne. My brain is fuzzy, my dogs are barking and my heart is full. What a great time!
It is a great honor to work with students like these, who are open minded and willing to stretch out of their comfort zone.
I threw alot of information at these artists. We talked alot about color, building space, texture, and when to put the happy couple on the wedding cake. (You may have had to be there to understand that last one.) It was really exciting to watch them go from making hesitant pecks to confident strokes, from "whaddo-I-do-now?" to "here's what I have in mind".A few moments from the weekend . . .
It's one thing to do the work, to make marks that the artist herself understands. It's another thing entirely to do that while talking. And making sense. (That's a big one.) Remembering the why's and why nots of laying color down on a surface and sharing those discoveries is a challenge that every artist should attempt. It's a gut check of sorts: Why do I do what I do? Is there a good reason? If so, what is it? If not, why am I doing that thing? And do I need to know why? Can I just make that mark because it seems like the right thing to do? All good questions, all deserve at least a moment of consideration, whether you come up with a final answer or not.
Tomorrow it's back to the studio for me, working by myself, figuring out the why's and how's on my own. It'll be easier, though, thanks to students who challenge me and are patient while I dig around for the reasoning behind my artistic decisions.
Thanks to all of you dear students, and thanks to Lux for providing a great space in which to create!
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